Day Three

Day three began with a couple of informative talks in one of the ballrooms of the Lethbridge Lodge. David Hunt from Alberta Environment gave a talk on water management in Southern Alberta. This was followed by a presentation by Ron McMullin from Alberta Irrigation. After a quick lunch, we were off to the St. Mary’s Dam. At the Dam we were introduced to Harley and Louis Frank of the Blood Tribe. Harley described the agricultural project in which approximately 20 members of the tribe are being trained in farming methods.

Did you know...

• Canadians use an average of 335 litres of water a day. Compare this to people in Haiti who use an average of three liters of water a day.

• It takes 11 litres of water to produce a head of lettuce and 51 litres to produce a cob of corn.

• If the water canals in Southern Alberta were put end to end they would reach from Vancouver to Toronto and back again.

• Irrigation technology has improved at the rate of a year since 1965.

• Irrigation crops in Southern Alberta include Alfalfa, beans, potatoes, peas, corn, sugar beets and cereal grains.

• The Blood Tribe has 335,000 acres of lands and produces a variety of crops. They irrigate 18,000 acres of land.

• The Blood Tribe uses 18 poles in their tipi’s. Each tipi usually displays drawing of the star people (bird), earth people (animal, people)